Ups & downs

Wow, how time flies! Lincoln is already 2 weeks old today! Well, It's been very busy around Lincoln's bed the last two days! Unfortunately when you are in intensive care you have to prepare yourself for a few backwards steps. Lincoln became sick on the 24th due to a metabolic alkalinity. This happened because in the process of urinating so much water you loose a lot of your bodies natural chemicals that make everything balanced, nice and happy. This made Lincoln not feel so hot and the doctors had to play catch up to get his body balanced out again before the can go forward. Yesterday was a good day for catch up. As they gave him the appropriate medications he was feeling better. They were even able to start feeding him Kristen's milk trough an NG tube (nasogastric). So, here we were thinking that yesterday was going to turn out worry free....nope! In the afternoon I started noticing a creamy colored fluid coming out of Lincoln's chest tubes which isn't normal. This was evidence of a condition called chylothorax (link - www.emedicine.com/med/topic381.htm). When you metabolize food, your body sends triglycerides (fatty acids) to your lymphatic system by way of a thoracic duct. Sometimes during thoracic surgery that duct becomes torn or damaged and leaks the fluid into the thoracic cavity. This is why we were seeing it coming out of his chest tubes. It isn't too serious but it changes his care management a lot. Lincoln has to be put on a low fat diet (which means no more milk for now) and be given a new medication to help the healing. Instead he will be on a high calorie pedialyte regiment. This should slow down the leakage and hopefully stop it. They will test it in a few weeks by giving him milk again. On rare occasion they have to correct it by surgery. The bummer of all of this is that this is a slow process. He will need to have his chest tubes in for the entire testing time which is not only painful but a good breeding ground for infection. This shouldn't however slow any other healing. It should not affect his heart or lungs or weaning off of other medications, although it might slow the process of weaning off of the vetilator. Other than that, Lincoln is doing well! He likes to open his eyes and look around a lot. He even showed a little interest in watching the NASCAR race yesterday (that's my boy!).



Aaron & Ginger Cook came by for a visit on Sunday to hang out with Lincoln and brought some reading material for Kristen to pass the time. Nana, auntie Heather & cousin Sydney also came to see the little dude. Heather had to leave the hospital one hour before Lincoln was born...so it was a real treat to see him after a two weeks of waiting. Nana even got an early birthday gift as Lincoln opened his eyes for her.



Please be in prayer for: The chylothorax stops leaking; The Dr's can keep his body's chemicals in balance; Lincoln's lungs get stronger so he can be weaned off of the ventilator; NO INFECTIONS!; Continued prayer that the pulmonary band and the coarchtaion repair gets better. Thankyou you all for your prayers and support...we love you all! J&K